Outsourcing UK justice.

Our law soon?
The proposal to establish a European Public Prosecutor is gathering pace.The Spanish EU Presidency, backed by France and Germany, announced that it is going to propose the creation of this post next month using powers under the Lisbon treaty, see here.

If you think cases such as the attempt by the USA to extradite Gary McKinnon outrageous, then this is even worse because the UK legal system will be unable to play any part in the extradition of UK citizens. We have an opt out from EU Justice and Home Affairs which means that the European prosecutor will not be able to bring cases in this country, but he will still be able to issue European arrest warrants to force UK citizens to face prosecution in another member state – without asking the permission of the Government or the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer. I agree that our legal system does not seem particularly bothered about UK citizens and happily grants extradition requests but this means that the possibility of preventing such extradition is totally removed. Interestingly David Cameron made no mention of civil liberties in his recent conference speech so we don't know whether he will or will not 'let matters rest' in this case if he attains power.